


Release Thy Lilies

by japansace



Series: My Love, We Deserve the Softest Eternity [20]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: + magic, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood, Childbirth, Domestic Fluff, Elves, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Intersex Elves, King Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Mpreg, Queen Yuuri Katsuki, and... - Freeform, they are so head over heels for the baby i CAN'T, whoops I forgot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26635522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/japansace/pseuds/japansace
Summary: “Are you scared?” Yuuri says, into the mirror.Victor startles.It still sometimes astounds him, how easily Yuuri can read him without the use of his talent.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: My Love, We Deserve the Softest Eternity [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1133426
Comments: 66
Kudos: 267





	Release Thy Lilies

**Author's Note:**

> It's time for baby!
> 
> Content warning: I do go into some of the details of labor and childbirth. None of it is particularly graphic or specific, but if that kind of thing squicks you out, feel free to skip this installment (or scroll down to the point in which the child is already born).
> 
> All right, here we go~
> 
> Ages:
> 
> Victor: 4781  
> Yuuri: 4741  
> Yuri: 516  
> and...

_Eight Hours Before_

_Ah—!_

Victor is at Yuuri’s side before anyone can even discern it, with an inhuman speed.

“Darling,” he says, with one hand around Yuuri’s wrist and the other against his waist, “is it…?”

Yuuri considers, squinting at the floor as he parses out the meaning of his most current predicament. “No,” he answers finally, with a furrowed brow. “A false one, I think.”

Victor lets out a breath, through parted lips. “All right.” He feels at Yuuri’s stomach—where the curve of his belly has lowered considerably, into the pelvic bone. Victor is full of manic, wound-up energy these days, with no place to put it. They all are; the whole of the _castle_ probably heard Victor fly across the room then, in his panic. Everyone treads around Yuuri carefully now, hyperaware of him in a way they never were before. There’s an electric charge in the air, all of them feeling close to the precipice. Victor has doubled the guard duty—doubled work on the barrier of Woodland as well, the water talents putting in extra effort to make Woodland twice as invisible to the innocuous, would-be passerby, in so that they are assured nothing will disturb them in this delicate time. He’s had the foliage talents move the arrangement of the chambers of the castle a dozen times, in just the last week. Everything should be _fine;_ they are _well_ prepared.

And yet, Victor still feels as though he’s doing nothing useful.

Yuuri seems to sense this, in all his worldly wisdom.

He blinks up slowly at Victor, with a tilt of the head. “Would you help me put my hair up, Vitya? It’s feeling a bit hot.”

Victor releases another breath, relieved and slow. “Of course, my love.”

They go back to their rooms and Victor sits Yuuri down at the vanity, reaching for the brush.

He gathers up the sides—the cool, silky clutch of it—and braids the strands together, to meet just above the nape. Yuuri has done this for him a hundred thousand times, in a hundred thousand different ways. It feels refreshing in the reverse; but it reminds him, too, why Yuuri has this much hair in the first place. _Our child did this,_ he thinks, watching the black tendrils slip through his fingers, one by one. _Our child that will be coming sooner rather than later._

“Are you scared?” Yuuri says, into the mirror.

Victor startles.

It still sometimes astounds him, how easily Yuuri can read him without the use of his talent.

“Yes.” Victor dips his head, until his forehead is resting against Yuuri’s crown. “I… I am not sure what I’m going to do, when you go into labor. If you scream—if you _cry—_ I may just go mad.”

Yuuri reaches for one of Victor’s hands, without moving his head. “An elf can’t die from childbirth.”

“That’s not the _point._ ” Victor’s arms come around Yuuri’s shoulders, holding him still and safe and _steady._ “I’ve—I’ve spent my whole life protecting you, starlight. Not a scratch on you, that you or I haven’t paid back in full. I’ve spent my whole life ensuring that you feel only the softest of caresses, that you’re loved and taken care of and adored in exactly the way you are meant to. I won’t be able to _stop_ your pain, this time. I won’t be able to bury it in an avalanche, as I’m sure I will wish to. I’ll—I won’t be able to do _anything,_ Yuuri. Just _nothing at all._ ”

Yuuri is quiet, for a while. Just stroking one of Victor’s arms, where it is thrown across his chest.

“Victor,” he says finally.

Victor only gives a slight stir, to indicate he is listening.

“When we train together—when we spar with swords and spears and all else—does it hurt?”

“I would never _hurt you_ —”

“That is not what I asked.” Yuuri clarifies, “When we work our bodies to their limits to increase our skills, our stamina, does it hurt?”

Victor considers. He supposes it does, in a way. Their muscles indeed ache, at the end of a good bout. He wouldn’t necessarily classify it as _pain_ , per se, but the sensation can be less than pleasant. “It hurts a bit,” he offers.

“But it’s worth it, yes? Because at the end of it, we’ve improved. We’ve grown stronger.” Yuuri turns in his arms, to reach up to Victor’s face. “You see? I will have to go through a hardship, but in the end, it’s going to amount to something amazing.” He brings Victor’s hands to his stomach, to feel out the shape of him. “We’re going to grow stronger, as a family. So we’re just going to have to have to grin and bear it.”

Liquid dapples against Yuuri’s hands, where they hold Victor’s to his sides. “How can you be so brave, Yuuri?”

“Because—” Yuuri kisses the corner of Victor’s mouth, demurely, where it’s grown all wet and salty. “—I know I can do anything with you. Just stay by my side the whole time, all right?”

Victor collapses to his knees, to hold Yuuri around his middle. “I wouldn’t ever dream of being anywhere else.”

* * *

 _Four Hours Before_

Victor gets Yuuri to sleep, reluctantly. He’s supposed to be sleeping more; the physician said as much. And by all accounts, Yuuri should be exhausted. Pregnancy is tiring on the hardiest of creatures, but for elves, now is the time in which the child is gathering up the last of the mother’s strength, to finish the make up of their talent while still in the womb.

Victor wonders, stroking Yuuri’s hair against his thigh, what talent their child will end up having. Ice, most likely. Talents aren’t hereditary—Yuuri is only one of two mind talents in current existence, after all—but rather, believed to be ordained by the goddess. Still, these things tended to cluster around particular locations and flow within particular lineages, and the monarchs of Woodland were a long line of ice talents, far back as anyone alive cared to remember.

That would be wonderful, Victor thinks. He’d had the distinct pleasure of walking Yura through the nuances of an ice talent, and he’d eagerly do it again, if allowed.

Yuuri makes a noise in his sleep—somewhere between a groan and a sigh—and Victor rubs the pads of his fingers against Yuuri’s brow, smoothing out the wrinkle as it forms there.

He relaxes again at the touch, stretching out like a languid cat.

How someone can look so elegant with such a severe weight pulling against their spine, Victor can never know.

* * *

_Twenty Minutes Before_

Yuuri wakes long before Victor wishes him to and sets himself to pacing the gardens, with Victor following closely behind. He needs to “walk,” Yuuri claims, but Victor would rather he be doing literally anything else.

Still, he’s wise enough not to say a word against it.

Someone else, however—

“Mama, you’re killing him,” Yuri says, coming upon them.

“I am not.” Yuuri turns to Victor, with his hands pressed flush against his back. “Am I making you uncomfortable, Vitya?”

“No…?”

Yuuri’s eyes flash red.

 _Yes._

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“Would you have lied down, had I?”

Yuuri considers, biting into the inside of his cheek.

_Probably not, no._

_Then you see why._

“I’m just so _uncomfortable_ ,” Yuuri says, with a strained lilt. He glares at his belly, with a miserable pout. “Move, you. I think you’ve been in there long enough.”

“Don’t tempt fate like this,” Victor pleads.

“Why?” Yuuri tilts his chin up to the sky. “It’s not like the goddess is listening to me _anyway!_ ”

“Yuuri, I beg—”

“Make it happen, if you can! I dare you!”

“ _Yuuri—”_

“O-oh—"

Yuuri’s hand shoots out, and Victor has it in his, immediately. “Is it…?”

“Very funny, Mama,” Yuri says, folding his arms into his sleeves.

Yuuri’s eyes lower, finding a fixed point upon the ground. “No, I… I think…”

“Darling?”

“Wait…” Yuuri shifts to one foot—and then a pool of liquid is forming, against his ankle. “There it is.”

“ _Yuuri!”_

“Yura,” Yuuri says, momentarily ignoring his partner’s plight. “Go tell Lydia and her team it’s time. Have them make sure the room is ready.”

“A-all right,” Yuri says, with quivering breath and even shakier steps.

“Victor.” Yuuri takes Victor by both shoulders. “Breathe for me, please?”

Victor does, with monumental effort. “I am the one who should be telling _you_ that.”

“Then do.” Yuuri takes his hand. “It’s going to be _fine._ Don’t you trust me?”

Victor breathes a little easier. “I do,” he says, holding Yuuri’s hand to his cheek. “With my whole heart.”

* * *

_Thirty Minutes Into_

The chamber they’ve designated for the birth is under the castle, down where it’s deep and dark and cool. The physician and her assistants are already there, by the time Yuuri and Victor arrive.

It is customary—both in Woodland and in Sealand, where Yuuri is from—to give birth into water, but they’re not quite at that stage yet. The idea is to start a life where life started: the ocean. Land was said to have formed out of the ocean, eons ago. But being that Yuuri’s contractions aren’t nearly close enough to begin pushing, Victor helps Yuuri settle onto a bed, slightly elevated in so that he can easily keep track of his surroundings.

Victor settles in right alongside him, gripping at his beloved’s hand just a touch too tight.

“Vitya,” Yuuri says, turning to him with softened eyes. “My hair?”  
  
Victor immediately reaches for the pins in his pockets, to ready Yuuri for the struggle ahead. Already noting a fine mist above the brow, Victor lovingly wipes it away with the back of his sleeve, before he sets to his work. “Do you think the baby will have a full head of hair, when we finally get to meet them?” He asks mostly to distract Yuuri, but he does wonder too with a genuine interest.

“Oh, I hope so.” Yuuri’s nose wrinkles, endeared by a memory. “Remember Yura’s little wisp of blonde? He looked so much like a duckling, I could have just _eaten him up_.”

Victor smiles, with strands of Yuuri’s hair between his fingers.

He finishes up removing all the loose hair from Yuuri’s neck, then goes to the physician’s assistants, seeking more work. They hand him some towels to keep Yuuri cool but otherwise shake their heads, with looks of sympathy.

It’s mostly a matter of waiting now.

The doctor feels at Yuuri’s stomach, at each instance in which he contracts. Victor can see the muscles in his abdomen tense with how they’ve lifted up his dress to watch for anything untoward. He’s read about the process, extensively, for this very moment; but the unfeelingness of the page left him woefully unprepared to witness Yuuri wince and go white in the face each time a convulsion seized him, gripping at Victor’s hand with his not-inconsiderable strength. He’s clearly trying _not_ to make a noise—for Victor’s sake—but can’t help a whine, every so often, as it’s pulled from between his teeth.

Just as Victor opens his mouth to tell him to let go—to speak or scream or whatever he’d like—Yuuri’s body ends up taking matters into its own hands.

 _Fuck!_

Victor jumps, from where he has moved into a position behind Yuuri, holding both his hands.

His darling hardly ever swore. But he was swearing now, from his ordeal.

It made the whole thing all the more real.

Victor draws his head against the flat of Yuuri’s temple, where it's become wetted. “Do what you need to, my love,” he says, quiet in his acceptance.

And Yuuri gives a cry that has the dogs howling, a whole floor above them.

* * *

 _Five Hours Into_

Yuuri dozes against his shoulder. Victor hasn’t moved, the entire time. His legs have grown a little numb admittedly, from the position, but he won’t risk moving an inch, if it means disturbing Yuuri.

His beloved clearly needed his rest.

“They’re coming much quicker now,” the physician whispers, as she jots down the time of the latest contraction, rippling against Yuuri’s skin even as he slept. “It’s good progress. Usually the first child involves the longest labor.”

Victor says nothing. Only kisses Yuuri against the crown, feather-light.

“Papa?”

Victor watches the guards step aside at the door, to allow Yuri inside. He’s fidgety, unsettled-looking: the visual representation of how Victor feels internally. “Is he…?” Yuri leans in—choosing not to come any closer—as though he’s afraid he’ll disturb the peace somehow, with his presence alone.

Victor looks down to Yuuri’s sleeping face. “He’s…” Well, _fine_ isn’t exactly the word. “… resting.”

“All right.” Yuri shuffles his feet. “Anything I can do?”

“I’m afraid not.” Victor considers, a moment longer. “Actually, there is one thing.”

“Yes?”

“Go into the achieves and pull out everything in edhelology please.”

“The whole shelf?”

“You can start with A through E.”

“If you’re sure…” Yuri casts his mother one final look, then runs along.

* * *

_Nine Hours Into_

Yuri brings him A through E, as promised. Victor finds the pages a bit stuck together when he receives them, however, and garners that it’s from poor Yuri’s talent, engaging sporadically in his unsettled state. He’s left frost on the book covers, snow tracks in the halls.

Victor can hardly blame him. If he was a bit younger, he thinks there would be a whole blizzard by now, raining down upon all their heads.

While Yuuri sleeps, he picks through the tomes—"edhelology,” the study of elves—for anything that might be useful: any birthing techniques he might have missed before, any methods of pain relief for their kind they haven’t implemented already. But the room is well stocked with everything they could need, and the attendants are ever present. There is truly nothing else he can do, then, other than to be near and to have faith.

He puts the books away, when Yuuri stirs.

“Anything you need, my dear?”

Yuuri blinks, slowly. “Water…” He says it almost in question, as though he’s not entirely sure of this himself.

Victor looks to one of the assistants, and they use their talent to bring a rivulet of water up to Yuuri’s lips.

“Mm,” Yuuri murmurs, closing his eyes as he leans back against Victor’s shoulder. “That reminds me of my mother.”

Victor covers one of Yuuri’s hands with his own. “We could still call on her, you know.”

“No.” Of this, Yuuri had been adamant.

Yuuri’s parents had come for the spring festival, of course—to witness Victor gift Yuuri with the finest betrothal necklace he could track down the world over for their unborn child. Since their arrival, they’d done nothing but dote on Yuuri as well, giving him their own gifts for the baby: soft garments and toys, sweet fruits from the coast of Sealand to aid in Yuuri’s upcoming recovery. Mari brought them a puppy she’d reared herself, to add to their pack. They could have been involved in Yuuri’s birth, had he wanted it.

He did not, however, want it.

Yuuri was stubborn. Prideful. He did not like showing weakness, and he thought himself _at_ his weakest, in the midst of birthing.

Besides which, he had made it very clear from the start that he wanted Victor and _Victor alone_ to be present, during the process. The physician and her assistants couldn’t be helped, but he wouldn’t hear of having anyone else.

That was it.

And Victor had respected his wishes.

“Will they look like your parents, you think?” Victor laughs, softly. “Look like _Mari_?”

“Oh, goddess, she’d never let us live it down.”

Victor hugs him around the middle, with the lightest of touches. “I can’t wait to see them.”

Yuuri turns in his husband’s hold, to cast a weary look over his shoulder. “Still believe in me?”

“More than ever. No— _twice_ as much as I did originally.”

Yuuri makes a considering noise in his throat, just a tinge amused. “Then I suppose I’ll have to do it, huh?”

* * *

 _Twelve Hours Into_

“We’re nearing the time, Your Majesty,” the physician says, with one of her hands propped against Yuuri’s knee.

A steel enters Yuuri’s eyes at that, as though this is all the information he needs.

With Victor’s and the assistants’ help, Yuuri crosses the room into a pool, filled to the brim with steam-warm water. The liquid sloshes over, onto the ground, as Yuuri settles in, Victor just behind him.

“Vitya, you didn’t need to—”

“Literally nothing could have stopped me.”

There’s an initial relief apparent on Yuuri’s face—the water doing well to soothe the sore muscles in his back and abdomen—but then the first sensation comes over him, in which Yuuri finally feels the urgency to push and to _push hard._

“That’s it,” the doctor says. She curls forward, prompting Yuuri to follow by example. “Lean _into_ it. Push for ten, then rest for thirty.”

She counts out, then lets Yuuri recover, from the first wave. He breathes wet pants against Victor’s neck in the interlude, leaning into him now with a force behind it that feels _ancient_ , a process that’s repeated itself for ages since the very dawning of the earth.

“Almost there,” Victor murmurs, into his ear. “Almost there, my love. Look at you, how incredible you are. I’m in absolute awe of you.”

Yuuri stirs, with the words. He braces himself again—white-knuckling the edges of the pool—then pushes with everything he’s worth.

He doesn’t speak now—doesn’t even try to engage his talent—lost as he is to the sensation. It’s like his body has never known a reality outside of this; it acts and _reacts_ with perfect timing, possessed by the spirit of beings long past, the fabric of the universe that tells him exactly what to do and how to do it and _when._

“That’s it, Your Majesty! One more!”

Then—

* * *

_One Minute After_

—there’s a blooming in the water, like that of a bright red flower. The physician has the child in her arms; it breaches the surface of the water, and there’s a _wail_ , like Victor has never heard. Loud and healthy and _strong._ He’s crying before he’s even gotten a good look—even before he’s gotten to _hold them._

The doctor sets their baby upon Yuuri’s chest, and oh, she’s _beautiful_ : pale and wrinkly with birthing fluid but in perfect possession of all her fingers and all her toes. She juts out a pudgy arm towards her mother, and Yuuri meets her there, holding her like he may never let go of her again.

“Oh—” Yuuri is babbling, having found his voice again. “Oh, she—she’s _here,_ Vitya.”

“Yes—” And Victor holds Yuuri—holds Yuuri who is holding their daughter—tighter than he may have ever before. “Oh, darling, she’s _wonderful._ You’ve done so _well_.”

Yuuri only stops looking at her briefly to kiss Victor, before he goes back to looking at her.

The assistants help rub her down—the little one wailing all the while, at her protective layer being stripped away—and Victor can finally see her more clearly: Yuuri’s complexion, Yuuri’s black hair, like the night sky. “A little you,” he says, into Yuuri’s shoulder, and he couldn’t be more pleased with the comparison.

“But look,” Yuuri says. He draws a finger down the bridge of their daughter’s nose; she calms at the touch, finally snuggling against the soft give of Yuuri’s skin. “Your nose… It’s so _distinct._ ”

“I suppose you’re right.” Victor traces the curve of her cheek, brushing against Yuuri’s hand. At that moment, her eyes at last open, and they’re blue, blue, _blue,_ like Victor’s only ever seen in the mirror. Yuuri gasps in delight at this, startling their baby, but she soon enough settles, once she’s realized she is in no imminent danger outside of having overexcitable parents.

“Vitya, will they stay like that? Please tell me they’ll stay like that.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

“She’s—” Yuuri blinks, seeing something floating upon the surface of the water. He looks up, to find its source. “It’s snowing…?”

And indeed it is. Gentle flecks are coming down, from a silver cloud gathered up against arch of the ceiling.

Victor hides his shame, against Yuuri’s neck. “I’m sorry. I’m just—I’m so _happy_ , my love. I’m so, so happy.”

Yuuri only smiles, with cheeks nearly as flushed as Victor’s. He holds their daughter close to his chest and plays with her fingers, where they’re balled into little fists. “Yuki…”

“Hm?”

“Yuki.” Yuuri glances over his shoulder. “’Yuki’ is the ancient word for snow, in Sealandian. It’s just something I remembered.”

“It’s pretty.”  
  
“It’s a name too.”

“Yuki…”

“M’hmm. Like your ice. Like how it snowed that day, when you rushed across the continent to see me.”

“I like it.” Victor draws a tuft of dark hair behind their daughter’s ear. “I think it suits her.”

Yuuri turns in his husband’s hold, to press a kiss against his collar. “I think so too.”

**Author's Note:**

> ... Yuki: 0
> 
> Aaaaaah, I'm so happy she's here. Yuki has been a figment of my imagination since... idk, at least 2017? But now she's HERE, and all of you know about her~ I've been crafting her character in my mind for so long now, I hope I get across just what a force of personality she is in coming fics.
> 
> Speaking of, I'll definitely be posting an immediate follow-up to this that will basically just be a series of vignettes: visitors coming to meet Yuki, Yuuri and Victor formally presenting her with her betrothal necklace, etc. It'll be........ so frickin' soft, but that's my brand, isn't it?
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much for being here! If you've read this far into the AU, you deserve some serious kudos. I still have a lot planned, so please stay tuned!


End file.
